The following pages contain resources, learning activities and ideas for incorporating technology into the PK-12 science curriculum.
Introduction
The modern computing age has created a very unique and intriguing dilemma for the educators of today and tomorrow. Those educators must incorporate the technologies that are in the hands of those they are educating if they want to succeed in motivating and educating students. Today, students are born into technology and many know no other way to look at, interact with, or investigate their world. Therefore, the concepts of TPACK play the most important role in any educators tool box. Educators must be trained, made to implement and reflect upon, and embed these technologies into their classroom. Truth be told, a teacher can ask a class to look up Rutherford's gold foil experiment in the text book and 90% of the students would not find the section or page number that the information is on, if and when they did find it they would only find one picture and two paragraphs about the content. Conversely, that teacher could ask the same class to take out those wonderfully banned devices they have to keep hidden and off (because the school will confiscate them and never return them if it is their second offense) and they would have at their disposal three thousand pictures, one million web pages, and several hundred scholarly articles to read through, and an abundance of worksheets, questions, answers, lab experiments, videos, blogs, among so many other things to choose from that they could be the foremost expert on the subject before class was over. This reminds me of the Math teacher I had back in middle school who hated calculators because he was convinced that he could do any math problem on the board or in his head faster than anyone could type the problem into the calculator. He even went as far as to have competitions on the matter in class. My answer to him, at least in my head at the time, was...REALLY! Who cares, we found a better way so give it up! We as educators face that same dilemma today with technology and the paradigm shift that is occurring as we speak. I truly believe that in five years text books will be a thing of the past, or should I say we will not be destroying anymore trees to make them for schools. As the CEO of a corporation I would never purchase something that depreciates, I would lease and let someone else take the loss on depreciation. Schools of the future will be purchasing leases on little bytes of information we call text books for a fraction of the cost of purchasing, housing, renewing stock due to destruction, and repurchasing due to outdated information a paper text book.
Now, what does all this mean for the frontline educator? Teachers, as well as all stakeholders, must begin constructing the structure in the education system that allows for the seamless integration of content, pedagogy, and technology. Teachers should become familiar with the concepts of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and learn to incorporate it into their own teaching. The educational world will eventually catch up with the teachers.
Considerations for Developing TPACK Science Activities
When developing and designing TPACK science learning activities, consider these and other questions:
Where can technology help students learn or help teachers teach science content?
Can technology help solve pedagogical issues?
What is the risk of technology problems or failures when implementing the use of the technology being used?
How can technology be used to address student prior knowledge or specific science content misconceptions?
How could you utilize technology to better inform the parents of all student's achievement pre and post test results?
Credit: McRory, R. (2008), Science, technology and teaching: The topic specific challenges of TPCK in science. In, Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators.
Table of Contents
TPACK in Science
The following pages contain resources, learning activities and ideas for incorporating technology into the PK-12 science curriculum.
Introduction
The modern computing age has created a very unique and intriguing dilemma for the educators of today and tomorrow. Those educators must incorporate the technologies that are in the hands of those they are educating if they want to succeed in motivating and educating students. Today, students are born into technology and many know no other way to look at, interact with, or investigate their world. Therefore, the concepts of TPACK play the most important role in any educators tool box. Educators must be trained, made to implement and reflect upon, and embed these technologies into their classroom. Truth be told, a teacher can ask a class to look up Rutherford's gold foil experiment in the text book and 90% of the students would not find the section or page number that the information is on, if and when they did find it they would only find one picture and two paragraphs about the content. Conversely, that teacher could ask the same class to take out those wonderfully banned devices they have to keep hidden and off (because the school will confiscate them and never return them if it is their second offense) and they would have at their disposal three thousand pictures, one million web pages, and several hundred scholarly articles to read through, and an abundance of worksheets, questions, answers, lab experiments, videos, blogs, among so many other things to choose from that they could be the foremost expert on the subject before class was over. This reminds me of the Math teacher I had back in middle school who hated calculators because he was convinced that he could do any math problem on the board or in his head faster than anyone could type the problem into the calculator. He even went as far as to have competitions on the matter in class. My answer to him, at least in my head at the time, was...REALLY! Who cares, we found a better way so give it up! We as educators face that same dilemma today with technology and the paradigm shift that is occurring as we speak. I truly believe that in five years text books will be a thing of the past, or should I say we will not be destroying anymore trees to make them for schools. As the CEO of a corporation I would never purchase something that depreciates, I would lease and let someone else take the loss on depreciation. Schools of the future will be purchasing leases on little bytes of information we call text books for a fraction of the cost of purchasing, housing, renewing stock due to destruction, and repurchasing due to outdated information a paper text book.
Now, what does all this mean for the frontline educator? Teachers, as well as all stakeholders, must begin constructing the structure in the education system that allows for the seamless integration of content, pedagogy, and technology. Teachers should become familiar with the concepts of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and learn to incorporate it into their own teaching. The educational world will eventually catch up with the teachers.
New revelations in Science and Technology
Considerations for Developing TPACK Science Activities
When developing and designing TPACK science learning activities, consider these and other questions:
Credit: McRory, R. (2008), Science, technology and teaching: The topic specific challenges of TPCK in science. In, Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) for Educators.